Abstract

In 1866 the first Indigenous Canadian doctor completed her training and in 1899 the first Maori doctor graduated from medical school in the United States. Professor Helen Milroy, a founding member of the Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association (AIDA), graduated from the University of Western Australia as Australia’s first Aboriginal doctor 84 years later in 1983. The number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander medical graduates has increased to 180 with a further 261 Indigenous medical students studying at universities. In 2011 the intake of first year Indigenous medical students at Australian universities reached a new high of 2.5 per cent, matching the percentage of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population.